Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers by Senator Brandis and Senator Nash in relation to energy. It wasn't that long ago, we all remember, that promises were made by Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott and other ministers in this government that, if they were elected to office, energy bills and electricity bills would fall by $550 all around Australia. But, of course, this is just one of those many promises that we saw from the Liberals that were broken as soon as they got into office. Whether it was about cuts to health care, cuts to education or cuts to electricity prices, the minute they got elected all of those promises were out the window.

What we've actually seen in reality is wholesale electricity prices double over the four years that this government has been in office. Every time we have ministers from this government get up and complain about energy prices, they need to have a look in the mirror, because they are the people who are responsible for this failure. And, unfortunately, ordinary Australians are paying the price through higher electricity bills. Every single solution that has been proposed to fix this has been blocked by elements within this government—the extreme right of the Liberal Party ganging up with the National Party—to kill off the carbon pollution reduction scheme from the Rudd and Gillard government and the emissions intensity scheme, something supported by the government's own Chief Scientist. Most recently, they have been ganging up to kill off the clean energy target, the latest suggestion by the Chief Scientist to try to bring energy prices under control.

Now, why is this happening? As I say, it is because of the ganging up between the extreme right within the Liberal Party and National Party members of this government who are so blinded by their ideology that they have lost sight of the best solutions we have to try to bring energy prices under control. There is no issue on which they are more blinded by ideology than their obsessive opposition to renewable energy. Even just this weekend we saw it from the National Party again. They met up for their national conference in Canberra, and what did they decide to do? They decided to remove all subsidies for renewable energy. We are yet to hear from ministers on whether this decision from the National Party is actually going to be put into practice by this government. They are the junior partner in this coalition government, and you would think that decisions from their national conference would actually carry some weight. And this decision to remove subsidies from renewable projects is obviously bad for the environment, but it is equally bad for jobs, particularly in regional Queensland, in the state that I come from.

Every day, we hear from the National Party that they are the party that represents regional Queensland and regional Australia. In actual fact, if you look at their record, they do nothing more than let down regional Australia, and they are doing it again here through their obsessive determination to kill off renewables and to kill off jobs in renewable energy right across Queensland. This decision from the federal National Party would kill thousands of jobs in renewable energy projects right across regional Queensland. Now, don't just believe me when I'm saying this. From the government's own renewable energy body, ARENA, the Australian Renewable Energy Authority—its own reports say that due to ARENA's own federal government funding it will support 2,300 direct jobs in the Australian regions, and thousands of indirect jobs in creating new renewable energy projects right across Australia. In Queensland alone, there are a number of projects that are being supported by federal government funding that would not go ahead without it, and we would see hundreds of jobs sacrificed at the altar of the National Party's ideological opposition to renewables.

There are 500 jobs at the Kidston solar farm near Georgetown in north Queensland, 200 jobs at the Whitsunday Solar Farm near Collinsville in Central Queensland, 175 jobs at the Barcaldine Solar Farm in Central Queensland, another 120 jobs at the Collinsville solar power station in Central Queensland, 30 jobs at the Longreach Solar Farm in Central Queensland and, in south-west Queensland, 50 jobs at the Oakey Solar Farm. Just that handful of projects adds up to about a 1,000 jobs in regional Queensland that are only happening because of this federal government's support for renewable energy. We don't think it's as strongly supportive as it should be, but the Nationals actually want to kill off these subsidies and kill off these thousands of jobs in Queensland and right across Australia. The Nationals do not support regional Australia. They need to get behind these projects. (Time expired)